The Big White Meat Monster

This is the Big White Meat Monster that lurks in my kitchen.

At least that is Clorinha’s opinion.

Whatever she is doing, sleeping, washing, playing outside, tormenting my indoor plants or hiding in the old computer it only takes the whisper of the fridge door opening and there she is.

She’s going to do it hard for the next two days, she’s just eaten the last unfrozen morsel; it’s kitty biscuits from here.

I didn’t get here yesterday. I got most other places, but not here. So today, you are first up. You see, if I don’t get here, I actually feel guilty, I even toss and turn in my sleep with angst… or is that because Clorinha’s biting my ankles again?

Yesterday I made fresh coffee, but I boobooed, I had the filter inside out, so today’s coffee is full of grit; horrible. I am drinking more gritty coffee while I am converting some Clorinha clips.

I mentioned the other day that Clorinha had found a new hideyhole, in the defunct and gutted PC. Here she is coming out, not very exciting, but…

And here I managed to catch her about to savage the fan.

On with today’s news.

My first student has cancelled, my last student has cancelled. I wait for the middle student…

A week or so ago, I saw a new fish appear in the supermarket. Alabote, I had no idea what it was. But when I saw it in the second supermarket yesterday, it piqued my interest and I got a pack of fillets. Brazilian supermarkets are full of cheap rubbish fish, polaca do alasca (imported from China), panga (imported from Vietnam) and the like; sometimes they are the only ones available. So I am always on the alert for something decent.

Alabote – looks like flounder

I got home and googled alabote and discovered that it is flounder. I like flounder; let’s see if this flounder is like NZ flounder.

At least its eyes are in the right place, both on the same side of the head.

There have been riots in Rio again. This time over the death of a dancer from a Globo TV show. Copacabana was closed for several hours while the people from the slum above created blockades with burning rubbish. This makes a wonderful picture for tourists coming for the FIFA World Cup. Apparently, he was shot, by whom we don’t yet know. Two reports are on TV, one that he was shot after falling to his death, and the other that he was shot resulting in the fall. There is a lot of confusion over this. Of course his mother is blaming the police. There was a shoot out with drug dealers that night, but some distance from where the guy met his death, but that doesn’t matter, his mother is all over the TV blaming the police. Which is pretty normal for here, it’s always the police, other hypotheses are never considered.

Wonderful bikes, but wrong BSA

BSA are in the news again.

No, not these BSA, although they were among the top English motorcycles in their time.

Boy Scouts of America…

They back to bashing homosexuals.

This time they’ve sacked a gay scout leader, who was strongly supported by the church scout group. Further, they’ve revoked the church’s scout group charter because the church’s views on homosexuality were not in line with BSA’s. BSA are full of bullshit. It is my opinion that the World Scouting Federation should revoke BSA’s charter because of their homophobic attitude and be done with it.

Hidden homes have become an issue in Britain. Hidden homes are where people are forced to rent store rooms, space above workshops and on industrial estates in order to live informally. The housing authorities say these ad hoc dwellers are a problem. I call BULLSHIT! The problem is the housing authorities, ergo the government,  not doing their job. Put the damn blame where it belongs.

I have always espoused that one may learn something new everyday or the day has been wasted.

A couple of days ago, I was browsing a photo blog that I follow, All Downhill from Here, and a photo caught my eye. Something strange. It was a wonderful photo of a wasp. Andrew’s photos are always stunning, usually of birds around Hong Kong, but this post was bugs.

Look closely – thanks to Andrew for permission to use his photo

Can you see the little red parasites? I had never considered that wasps have parasites. You tend to think of wasps as wasps, end of the matter, but when you delve further, you learn something new.

That’s about my lot for the day, I need more gritty coffee.

Later.

All Fizzed Out

My liver would look as though it had been pan fried

After writing about my lack of fizz yesterday, it’s Thursday and I have just put the last bottle of sparkling mineral water in the fridge, which means I have drunk nine litres since Monday.

I’m so glad it’s not alcoholic, because I’d be giving my liver a real bashing.

About the photo two posts back of me doing ‘Santa’ in front of the BBQ, I don’t ‘do’ Santa, the ‘Ho ho hos’ are beer induced.

OMG, now what?

The one time in my life that I played Santa was at my son’s kindergarten. One of the kids toward the end of the ordeal looked me straight in the eye and “You’re Brett’s dad!”.

Never again.

The floods I mentioned yesterday, have been catastrophic.

Image – ArarunaOnline

My ex rang me earlier to tell me that the street she lived in in Austin (a sub-suburb of Rio interior) has been badly flooded and many houses destroyed  or badly flooded destroying everything.

Neighbours that I knew in the area are homeless.

This photo gives you an idea of the severity of the floods in the region.

Uruguay has legalised marijuana. The first country in the world to show some sense. The war against drugs is not winnable, other methods need to be looked at for a solution. My opinion is that drug addiction should be treated like alcoholism, it’s a sickness, you shouldn’t be jailed for being sick.

Britain is looking at changing their law to make it easier to criminilise ‘Legal Highs’, synthetic drugs. Stupid bastards, legal highs only exist because you’ve made everything else illegal. Once you make these illegal, they will make more synthetic drugs that’ll kill even more people. Wake up and smell the coffee, you’re all arse-about-face.

I got a badge from WordPress, 1,ooo Likes on my Things that Fizz & Stuff blog, cool.

I have just discovered via The Guardian, that the Russian Winter Olympics being held in Sochi are being questioned. Sochi is sub-tropical.

I thought they were ‘Winter Games’…

Yet, here you see a lovely beach scene on the Black Sea.

Doesn’t look very much like Winter Olympic weather to me.

Just enough time to squeeze in a nap before class.

Later.

Not so Scary Now

Put on your ‘big-boy’ pants and deal with it

Finally, I put my big-boy pants on and went to tackle the evil monster that had befallen my kitchen and brought chaos.

Yes… I did the dishes.

Then, I hobbled off to work, with the full expectations that I would arrive there in one piece.

Yea tho’ I walk in the shadow of rush hour,

I will fear no evil, for the traffic lights are with me,

my walking stick comfort me, even tho’ I wobble a bit. – Psalm 23¾

I did indeed wobble a bit. My walk hobble to work took 30 instead of the usual 20 minutes and my legs were aching by the time I got there.

The lesson was done from the seated position, actually it was doing a song exercise and a mini test, so thankfully there was not a lot of standing expected.

Saturday/Caturday, time to recover the excesses of work last night. I want to be right to get back to work on Monday because, apart from the medical costs, this week off work has cost me R$400 off my salary for the month. Being sick is expensive, no wonder I don’t do it often.

I have enough meat left for another BBQ. It is thawed, so must be used. I’ll go to the botequim about 11am and see if anyone is interested in lighting the BBQ. LOL like they’d refuse… It’s so handy having a neighbourhood bar nextdoor.

I’ll have to go and get some more straw and water first, still on meds. Doesn’t that make me sound horrible, like a druggie?

It’s a sunny day, perfect for beer & BBQ.

For some reason a post on retired beer kegs I did on my Nether Region has attracted a lot of interest, the post has nearly 100 hits since last night. I have not idea why, or who. Generally speaking, the last week has seen a small, but welcome, increase in hits on all my blogs; and the new blog (click Caturday link above) has slowly begun to take off, not dramatically, but moving in the right direction.

I read during the week that “14pt is the new 12pt” I’ve noticed a few blogs using 14pt lately. It looks god-awful ugly. Apparently this is to combat the small size screens of iPads and SmartPhones, etc. I don’t damned well care! It’s UGLY!

So ugly, that I have begun bypassing these blogs. As soon as I see 14pt text as the body, I click that little red ‘X’ in the top right corner. I will not sully my screen with 14pt text.

Damned, again?

The normally tranquil life of Rio de Janeiro is about to be disturbed again, There is a week to go for Rockin’ Rio. First it’s the pope, or Lady Gaga, or some other insignificant, I can’t be bothered with this nonsense.

The byline reads ‘for a better world’. It would be a better world if they stopped this shit.

The logistics for these mammoth events is a total waste of the Earth’s resources.

But, who cares?

We live blindly in the ‘here and now,’ bugger tomorrow.

It’s all going to hit the fan in the near future and humanity will be left shaking it’s collective head asking, ‘what happened?’

Interesting post coming up tomorrow on Tomus Acarnum about it being too late for the Earth’s aliens to save themselves. Actually, the posts there over the last couple of days are also alien-ated.

I need a nap before BBQ.

Later.

Is it just me?

Really!

I didn’t get here yesterday. Well, I was here, but I just didn’t get here! So there was no post, not even one of my phantom posts.

Split days and a long early morning are to blame. Same today, but I didn’t have evening classes to deal with, so here I am; in all my underpanted glory.

After work, it was the supermarket. Bought too much booze, blew the budget. Apart from the odd twinge of guilt, it felt wonderful. I love my therapy. Who needs meds?

One of the boozy things I got was a bottle of Aussie wine, a dry white.

It was an unplanned purchase, cheap enough, but then I had already put a bottle of Campari in the chopping cart. That was later added to by a bottle of Tawny Port.

Then I bought some smelly cheese too, and they’re not cheap.

I have always considered minor memory lapses to be a sign of aging although they didn’t start recently, but have been with me for a long time. They don’t happen often, but small things like standing at the fridge with the door open wondering… “Why am I here?” Or entering another room, with the same bewilderment.

But I found the cause today, it all has to do with doors… You can read more on my Genes blog today.

Next week life in Rio will be chaos. Public holidays on Tuesday, Thursday & Friday. It has already cost me R$200 off my months wages and all because I of the Pope; and I’m not even Catholic! Why couldn’t he just send a nice message to be read to the faithful instead of getting on his chariot and coming here personally.

Popes should be kept on their ropes.

Not running around the world disturbing lives unnecessarily.

Weekend… Cold front is hovering, and after they said it wouldn’t be here until Monday. Someone needs to polish his crystal ball.

It’s my beefless week, so my menu is all chicken, pork and fish. Yes, there is a shark in my freezer.

The nws has started, the coffeepot is calling…

Later

The Best of Intentions

…were overtaken by beer o’clock  yesterday, then I decided it was time for pizza, by the time I got home all I wanted was alka-seltzer. Blogging wouldn’t cut it.

I was just returning from the bathroom and tried to turn off the kitchen light… at 9:30am, then I realised I was trying to switch off the sun…

It’s a beautiful sunny day here in Rio, wish you were here, bring beer.

I read a blog post yesterday by a young teen author bemoaning the fact that adult books (NO! Not Penthouse!) didn’t have pictures. Adult books don’t need pictures, they have words. The authors of adult books know how to use words to make pictures. Judging by the standard of English on the net, adult books will soon need pictures… *sigh* Young people just don’t get it.

I took a neat photo of a spider on Sunday, it didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked, but I’ll share it with you.

Colourful ‘bicho‘ in the park

He’s (or she) the black and yellow out-of-focus thingy just right of centre clinging to his little web in the bush.

For photos like that, I yearn to have my faithful old Nikon M, put the 35-70 zoom on and take a guaranteed serious photo. My old truck Nikon was stolen in a careless moment on a bus trip in Peru. The fateful trip had a stop in Chincha, after which the town was destroyed by an earthquake, the same one that got Pisco, where I was heading.

So far the day has been fabulous, I’ve even been moved to do half the dishes, I wonder if I’ll be moved again?

I started blogging at 4am, went back to bed at 6 and up again about 8, so the day has been productive, I have only one more blog to post on. I began this morning with my fridge habits, now doesn’t that sound exciting?

Today is hump day, over the hump and it’s downhill all the way to Friday.

Then of course it’s the weekend.

So far I have planned a leisurely lunch at Brazeiro with a fellowess teacher. It’s a ‘beef week’ for me, next week is beefless. So I’m making hay while the sunshines.

Saturday, I have planned nothing, and fully expect to achieve that.

Should I need help, I’ll let you know.

Need more whistles

I have been thinking about these whistleblowers. You know, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden, the American government has labelled them as traitors, but traitors betray the country, not the government, and I don’t see how these guys have betrayed the country, they should be lauded as heroes for showing the people of America what their government is doing so secretly, and so often against the wishes of the people, not to mention against the people.

Everything I read tells me that America could do with more whistles.

Manning and Snowden should be put on pedestals, not in the dock. They should be awarded the “People’s” Medal of Honor, because Congress certainly won’t give them theirs.

CBF (Brazilian Football Body)and FIFA are getting the stick over the World Cup in 2014. Football (soccer) is a game for everybody, not just the elites. There are millions of Brazilians who love football and want to attend World Cup matches, but can’t afford it.  There are also additional charges that corruption is rife in the CBF.

This should be a ‘Happy Happy Joy Joy’ time for Brazil, but the HHJJ has been taken out of the equation.

I see Argentina is wielding a big stick to combat football violence. They have banned away fans from attending games. Pity the rest of the world didn’t take similar steps; something positive. Brazil needs to do this, I believe it has the worst figures for deaths as a result of football violence in the world.

Once again, I leave you with a world that is not the happy place it should be.

Later.

Basking in Sunshine

Yes, in Rio de Janeiro, that’s what we normally do. We also do broiling, roasting, sweating in the sunshine.

I just read a headline that England is expected to be basking in the sunshine, now of course, for England this is news.

For Rio this is not news, it would be news if the beer ran out.

Yesterday I mentioned Prozac. It was a joke, I don’t need Prozac, I have coffee.

But I was surprised during the week to read that artists, musicians, writers, composers, philosophers consider that using Prozac heightens their experience and makes them more creative.

I get that with coffee, hell, if I took Prozac too, I’d be a creative blathering wreck; but then I am a blogger, what can I say? <—– Rhetorical question.

I had a thought…

But it escaped.

I need more coffee!

*pregnant pause*

Got coffee, thought returned. Warning, this is offensive – to Americans

Long ago there was no television, some of us remember those days… unfortunately. But, we did have radio. One of the radio programmes that I enjoyed was The Goon Show.

Now this programme is solid proof that Americans have no culture.

Most Britains understand the Goon humour without having to think about it, similarly Australians and New Zealanders.

This is due to understanding our culture.

Americans just look blankly and go WTF? See, absolutely no understanding of culture.

If you have the time, listen to this…

.

The Goon Show was one form of humour that could never be converted to television.

I used to have this LP (Long Player record, for those too young to remember LPs), in fact I had many of their LPs.

There, just a touch of nostalgia.

Must blog along.

Later.

BRrrrr! With a capital BR

Damn, it was cold this morning!

It’s not often that one wakes in Rio de Janeiro, beach capital of the world, and shivers as one gets out from under the covers. In fact, it’s not often that one even uses covers.

My feet froze as I had my morning pee, and froze some more as I made my morning coffee. While that was brewing I had to hunt around in my drawers to find an old tracksuit pants to wear.

No classes today, no classes tomorrow, so it’s weekend! Time to wind/e down.

Magic door

While I was in Barra on Tuesday to visit the magic door, I visited my favourite shop. Lidador is a wonderful place, full of imported wine and foodstuffs. It’s where I get my Lea & Perrin’s Worcestershire Sauce and Coleman’s mustard powder from. Although, they were out of Lea & Perrins.

*Sulk*

Didn’t want to waste the trip, so I had a good browse. Last time I saw they had a wine from New Zealand that was well under the apparently statutory price of R$100. I had though of getting a bottle, but they had both (only had two) been sold.

During my browsing I spied a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from Uruguay. I had never seen a wine from Uruguay before. Flashing lights and warning bells went off in my head and the bottle somehow made its way to the counter, jumped into a bag and the girl was asking for R$35. In a trance I paid.

The bottle on the left now sits in my wine rack awaiting a ‘suitable’ occasion. I’m sure I’ll find one, soon.

3pm, and the sun has been out all day, but not warming appreciably. I am still in my tracksuit pants and my arms are close to being goosey.

I have my pork chop marinating and waiting to be grilled, so I guess I should do the honours.

Later.

A Cold Wintery Day

Lixo, a cat with the right attitude

Cold front came over last night, result, a cold wintery day.

I am going to take a leaf out of Lixo P. Cat’s book and have an 11am nap, I’ll finish this post when I wake…

Later.

Nap over.

One doesn’t really expect Rio de Janeiro to have wintery days, Rio’s reputation is hot & sunny, along with summer rains that cause flooding, but those days aren’t cold like today.

It’s lunch time. Noon has rolled around. The Lunch menu: Oven Fried fish ‘n chips, doesn’t that sound healthy?

Actually, it’s left overs from yesterday reheated in the oven. I’ll eat it while sprawled on the sofa watching the news and quaffing a chilled bottle of Chateau Guandú.

These houses on the bank of the river would discharge their sewerage untreated directly into the river

The Rio Guandú is Rio de Janeiro’s notoriously polluted river that flows into Guanabara Bay, equally notoriously polluted.

The river is also the source of Rio’s water supply after passing through the CEDAE (water company) treatment plant.

Most people won’t drink tap water here, but I along with those who can’t afford an alternative do. Chateau Guandú therefore is a euphemism for my tap water after passing through my fridge.

You see, not all the world has sparkling clean rivers like my own city in New Zealand where you can scoop water from the river and drink it from your hand.

Lunch beckons.

My version of Chateau Guandú

Don’t like this game…

Don’t like this game anymore, gonna take my toys and go home!

Doesn’t that just sound like a spoiled brat?

What would happen to the world if God decided to do that? Just up and retire.

If you’re God’s representative on Earth, you can’t retire, it’s a lifetime commitment. You retire at the wheel; you can’t just jump out of the car.

And, he still gets to be a cardinal. What tomfoolery is this? He should be ex-communicated for deserting millions of adherents.

Lixo is lying on the living room floor. As I passed through to get my umpteenth coffee of the morning, I spoke to him; Oh da poor puddy tat lying on da floor,” to which he looked up had a big stretch and lay down to sleep again. Life can be so tiring.

Yesterday was Monday. I did warn you. SNAFU was right. About the hour which I was expecting ex & co, I was at the botequim to greet them. That’s a lie, I was there for the beer; my phone rang. Ex – “Had an unexpected visitor, can we make the ‘dead cow’ experience tomorrow?” What could I say, “No, sod off!”? So the ‘dead cow’ experience will be today, I’m such a softie.

Good reason to have a third beer; and a fourth. Then Lincoln trotted out a bucket of JB whisky. Well, it wasn’t really a bucket, but it was a very big glass.

Fifth beer and joined the crowd at the BBQ.

Then I thought about the cold wine in the fridge…

Chilean Sauvignon-Blanc, actually, the thinking was a split second, the drinking took a little longer.

Crisp and dry, ideal for a scorcher.

Got another bottle in the fridge for today. Ex won’t drink it, she only likes sweet wines. Still got that Italian bubbly that I never opened on New Years Eve in the fridge, that may just meet a similar fate.

Lixo still lying on the living room floor. He has rolled over, that must have taken some effort.

Last night all the TV programmes were stuffed up. Earlier than normal, shorter than normal, so they could show Big Brother Brazil (stupid effin’ unreality show) before televising the Grupo Especial parades at the Sambôdromo. They could have knocked BBB on the head and let us see the normal programmes.

Vila Isabel – image: guiadasemana

Lots of people, noise, colour and skin.

Lazy Day

The last three days have been much cooler; 20°C cooler, in fact, and raining, lots and lots of rain. Yesterday when I got home from class I was saturated from head to foot.

Image – Celso Pupo/AE

Lots of damage done overnight to at-risk housing, highways, bridges, trees and flooding through the state.

I had plans today, but they have all gone by the board. My students for tonight have all cancelled, so I have a day off… again.

While I like days off, it doesn’t do much for the wallet.

I had a wonderful lunch, poached merluza with capers.  Merluza do alasca is Pacific hake. Just dump the frozen fillets in the oven try, cover with milk, pour on some olive oil, add a couple of spoons of capers and season with pepper and salt. Couldn’t be easier; a real slap-dash meal. I have a big fillet left, I might make fish balls for lunch tomorrow….

Too cool to think about beer o’clock, so I’ll just doodle on here.

Blogging right along.

Later.